MOSCOW, Idaho – University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger allegedly returned to the scene of the crime at least once hours after the crime, according to a police affidavit, and news videos the next morning reveal at least two sightings of a white car driving through the area while police and media were at work.
Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student. in criminal justice and criminology at nearby Washington State University, he was arrested Dec. 30 in connection with the brutal murders in an ambush that the coroner said likely began with the victims asleep.
Shortly before the murders in the early hours of November 13, 2022, a white Hyundai Elantra drives past the victims’ six-bedroom rental house on King Road three times, according to court documents. On the fourth visit, just after 4 a.m., Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, are believed to have been stabbed to death.
Two other housemates were inside at the time and were not attacked, including one that detectives revealed last week saw a masked man leaving the house.
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A white car seen on Nez Perce Drive near the Sigma Chi fraternity house on November 14, the day after four University of Idaho students were killed just 200 yards away by a masked man who, according to the police officer, was driving a white Hyundai Elantra. Inset: Bryan Kohberger, 28, the suspect in custody.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital, Latah County Sheriff’s Office)
Sixteen minutes after the white car arrived, the suspect vehicle is seen on camera speeding away, the affidavit alleges.
The same document states that Kohberger’s cell phone, labeled “8458 Phone,” returned to the area about five hours after the crime, before heading south of the city.
WATCH: Idaho Murders: White Car Spotted Near Sigma Chi’s Home on November 14
“Additional review indicated that Phone 8458 used cellular resources on November 13, 2022, which are consistent with Phone 8458 leaving the Kohberger Residence area at approximately 9 a.m. and traveling to Moscow, ID,” the statement states. sworn. “Specifically, phone 8458 used cellular resources that would provide coverage to the King Road Residence between the hours of 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m..”
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A cellphone photo of a computer screen showing a white car on Highway 8 in Moscow, Idaho, around 3:45 a.m. on November 13, according to an employee who found it while reviewing security footage.
(Fox Digital News)
Pat Diaz, a retired Miami-Dade homicide detective with 35 years of experience, told Fox News Digital that someone seeking a Ph.D. in criminal justice he could use her studies as a legitimate excuse to visit a crime scene so close to home. But Kohberger’s alleged ping near the King Road home came around 9 a.m. on the day of the stabbings, about three hours before police said she received the 911 call.
If the suspect had returned the next day, he would have seen the crime scene tape and the investigators at work.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates, in Kaylee Goncalves’ latest Instagram post, shared the day before the murders.
(@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
John Kelly, a crime profiler and psychotherapist who has interviewed numerous serial killers, said perpetrators often return to the scene of the crime at least once.
“There are no definitive statistics, because every crime is different,” he told Fox News Digital on Monday. “What they get is they relive it: they’re elated to be back at the scene of the crime.”
Bryan Kohberger, left, accused of killing four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022, watches as his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, speaks during a hearing in U.S. District Court Latah County, Thursday, January 5. , 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)
One example he gave was Richard Allen, the suspect in the Delphi murders in Indiana, whom police arrested in October nearly six years after the murders of his teenage friends Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, of whom he said were walking the same paths where the girls disappeared for years.
“The guy from Delphi, he’s been back God knows how many times,” Kelly said. “Not that he specifically went to where death was, but he definitely walked through that abduction zone, I’m sure, many times over five years.”
Bryan Kohberger arrives at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport in Pullman, Washington, on January 4.
(FoxNews)
Kohberger’s phone was found to be “using cellular resources that provide coverage to the area of 1122 King Road” at least 12 times prior to the murders as well, according to the affidavit, written by Moscow Police Cpl. Brett Payne. He said detectives placed “Phone 8458” near the King Road home “at least twelve times before November 13,” citing phone records obtained through a search warrant.
“All but one of these occasions occurred in the late afternoon and early morning of their respective days,” Payne wrote.
Bryan Kohberger was taken into custody by Indiana police on December 15, 2022 before being identified as a suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students.
(Hancock County Police Department)
Then, on November 14, white cars were seen on video passing near the house at least twice, and the phone made one last connection to a cell tower that provides coverage to at least part of Moscow.
“Investigators discovered that phone 8458 was connected to a cell phone tower that provides service to Moscow on November 14, 2022, but investigators do not believe that phone 8458 was in Moscow on that date,” Payne wrote. “Phone 8458 has not been connected to any tower serving Moscow since that date.”
The investigation was in full swing that morning, with the help of the state police and the FBI.
Police search a house in Moscow, Idaho on Monday, November 14, where four University of Idaho students were killed a day earlier in an apparent quadruple homicide. The victims are Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Idaho; and Kaylee GonCalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“The Moscow Police Department is actively working, with the support of many other agencies, to investigate this incident,” Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said that morning. “At this time, there is only limited information that can be shared without jeopardizing the integrity of the investigation.”
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That afternoon, as a group of officers on the scene were walking toward the band’s field, a Fox News digital camera recorded a brief sighting of a white car heading up Nez Perce Drive. The field separates Taylor Avenue, the cross street with King Road, and Greek Row on campus, where Chapin lived in the Sigma Chi fraternity house.
The car can be seen at the top of the frame as two officials talk on the near side of the field at around 2:08 p.m. PST on November 14.
Web detectives previously noted that an ABC 7 news camera recorded a white car over a correspondent’s shoulder as he took a live photo in front of the King Road home that morning.
A split photo showing the crime scene and victims, including University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital/ Instagram/ @xanakernodle/ @kayleegoncalves))
Police linked “Phone 8458” that rang near the crime scene to Kohberger because he identified it as his phone during a traffic stop on August 21, 2022 in Moscow.
He was driving a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra at the time, the same vehicle he drove into a traffic stop on Oct. 14, 2022 at Washington State University.
READ THE AFFIDAVIT BELOW. APPLICATION USERS: CLICK HERE.
Judge Megan Marshall issued a gag order on the case last week, barring investigators and attorneys for both sides from publicly commenting on many aspects of the case.
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Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one felony count of robbery for allegedly entering the home with the intent to kill.
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
